Bettiah will see a fight of three horses

Wearing thin but still surviving, the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi lingers on in this region where the Father of the Nation started his resistance to colonial rule by taking up the cause of peasants in the Indigo Movement in 1917.

People of Bettiah eagerly await another saviour. What this ‘Animal Farm’, with birthplace of George Orwell in nearby Motihari, has to choose from in this election is a curious bunch. The most prominent one is filmmaker Prakash Jha, who opted to be a candidate of Ramvilas Paswan’s LJP; then there is RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s brother-in-law and rebel Sadhu Yadav from Congress; and BJP’s recently-returned Sanjay Jaiswal who had left the party after the last parliamentary polls.

Much of the electoral atmospherics here centres around Sadhu Yadav, the prospects of Congress, his estrangement with Lalu Prasad and how he would corner the secular vote. It suits BJP’s Jaiswal as the fight between Yadav and Jha is to his advantage.

Lalu, campaigning here for Jha, has openly lambasted his brother-in-law, saying the power and privileges the latter enjoyed due to his [Lalu’s] position and clout had gone to his head. He likens him to Ram ji ka ghoda (Lord Ram’s horse), who thought that the flowers and garlands, being showered on Ram’s chariot, were for him.

While the BJP has a base among the sizeable Vaishya community, along with Rajputs and Bhumihars, Sadhu and Jha contend for votes mainly from Brahmins and Muslims. Jha being the only Brahmin in the race, the votes of this community are likely to be split, as it has traditionally been with the Congress for years.

Jha, who could have been a Congress candidate if things had worked out in time, now prefers LJP. He is basing his campaign on Gandhian principles: development with employment and empowerment from the grassroots. Any Bollywood stars coming to campaign for him? “I have banned them,” he said.

With a number of welfare projects to his credit — cleaning and sprucing up the district hospital, help during disasters, seed farm, factory for agricultural implements and a sugar mill under construction — he has managed to reach down to the lowest of the low in the population. He is targeting youth and women and talks of wealth generating schemes as the way to development.

“Bihar is not connected to the market. One has to get the market here,” he says.
“I decided to join politics as it is the only way to have access to means and resources to bring about development,” he says, adding that his work will continue whether he wins or loses.